THE POWER OF BR1M

Kill the issues, kill Pakatan

In the 13th general election it will boil down to cash versus cow.

February 4, 2012: The moment the Barisan Nasional federal government succeeds in killing off all the issues brought up by the opposition Pakatan Rakyat, it will call for the 13th general glection.

Already, there is widespread rumour that Parliament will be dissolved this month as Pakatan’s last bastion of defence – the cattle saga – is now almost swept under the BN carpet altogether. Coupled with the RM500 cash aid to the low-income group, BN is now riding on a high due to the feel-good factor generated by BR1M (Bantuan Rakyat 1Malaysia).

However, it must be brought to public attention that applicants in the DAP fortress of Kepong Baru have yet to receive this aid. Is BN denying the cash aid to Kepong Baru voters because BN knows that it can never win in Kepong? DAP’s Dr Tan Seng Giaw has been the Kepong MP since the late 1970s.

Currently, the National Feedlot Corporation issue is getting less and less coverage. The mainstream broadcast media has almost stopped talking about it. Ditto for the mainstream newspapers.

Let us take a step back to September last year before the Feedlot drama came up to the surface. Before presenting the budget on Oct 7, last year, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his Cabinet had already read the Auditor-General’s Report. It is standard practice for the prime minister to first go through the report before the opposition MPs and this practice has been adopted since the mid-1980s.

This way, the BN federal government will have the opportunity to cover up any unsavoury details in the audit report and deny the opposition any bullets with which to shoot the government.

Be that as it may, the audit report should have been on the table of all the MPs on the day of the budget presentation. But this was not the case last year. As the audit report took longer and longer to surface, the Pakatan MPs have already began to surmise that something was amiss and that the BN federal government must have sent the Auditor-General’s Report back to the Auditor-General’s office for amendments to be made. Of course, there was no concrete proof of this – only theories.

But lo and behold! When the report came out 17 days later on Oct 24, the opposition MPs read it with eagle-eyes and pounced on the Feedlot project like a dog pouncing on a juicy bone. This is it! This is what the BN federal government had wanted to hide all along.

Public anger

Therefore, when Najib read the report in September, he would have known that Feedlot would emerge as a problematic issue. Thus, he devised the RM500 cash aid as a weapon to launch a pre-emptive strike on Pakatan and on Oct 7, he announced this cash aid as one of the goodies offered in the 2012 Budget – all because he had already known about Feedlot in advance. This RM500 is a sweetener to dull the senses of the rakyat and to pacify public anger pertaining to Feedlot.

Even the audit report did not mention much about Feedlot except to say that it failed to meet its KPI (Key Performance Index). If not for the whistleblower to whom we owe much gratitude, we would have known next to nothing.

To sum up: the cash aid came about after Najib has read the Auditor-General’s Report and the reason for this cash aid is to nullify the opposition’s attacks which would be sure to follow and also to win over the voters’ hearts and minds. Insidious! It is a two-pronged attack by BN that can be very deadly if the opposition does not play its cards well.

Therefore in the 13th general election it will boil down to cash versus cow. These are the two main issues of the day. Even the PKFZ (Port Klang Free Zone) issue and the Scorpene submarine issue have sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

The BN federal government is doing its utmost to cover up this cattle issue. The lady at the centre of the drama, Shahrizat Abdul Jalil, has gone on leave. Najib is careful not to provoke her anger as Umno Wanita, of whom she is the chief, is a very powerful wing because it is in charge of all the “pondok panas” during the polls. (Pondok panas is where one can go to check one’s particulars when there is an election campaign.)

Machiavellian scheme

Umno Wanita members are also very strong election campaigners with wide outreach, especially in the rural areas. Soon the public will forget about her and Feedlot – out of sight, out of mind. This is psychological warfare employed by Umno strategists. And Malaysians are known to have short memories.

Helping BN’s nefarious plans are the mainstream papers showing pictures of happy recipients and long line of recipients of the RM500 cash aid. This aid is being handed out by BN ministers when it should have been the work of the Inland Revenue Board (Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri) officers.

This just goes to show that BN wants to deceive the public by telling them that it is BN politicians’ money instead of the taxpayers’ money. Taking public money to give back to the public and yet labelling it as their own money – that is BN’s Machiavellian scheme.

BN always does well when the opposition has no issues. Unlike in 2008, there were a number of very hot issues, most notably PKFZ and Lingam tape. Only the Ox can save Pakatan now. The only avenue open to Pakatan is the ceramah circuit and word of mouth that can penetrate the rural areas where the votes are most vital. If Pakatan fails to harp on this Feedlot issue 24/7, BN will easily win big in the 13th general election.

By the way, Najib is also using this cattle issue to trip up Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin as the former knows that the latter may have some grand designs for the No1 job. Muhyiddin knows that the Najib intends to do him in and therefore has avoided answering questions on this issue. The portly No 2 is also a sly and cunning man.

Najib is evasive when it comes to the tough questions and has avoided saying anything on Feedlot. He is busy polishing the media to enhance his image. It is time for Malaysia to reject a prime minister who has only style and glamour but no substance and to boot out BN in toto in this coming general election. Otherwise, it will be too late.

Selena Tay is a FMT columnist.